The Meeting
by Quintessential Queen of Hearts
Summary: The story of when Sarah met Abby.


I do not own NCIS; No infringement is intended.

Please review! It is a great help and I am grateful a thousand times over.

Sarah McGee had spent the better part of half an hour trying to get her bags from her car to Tim's door. He had agreed to store some of her things while she was moving between apartments. She had a key and, despite instructions, hadn't wanted to wait for him to get home. Now she was regretting that decision.

Was she imagining it or were the bags getting heavier? She had pushed, pulled and kicked her possessions into the building and now up to his floor. She was irritated, tired and running out of creative words to use to curse her luggage. Finally, she made it to the door and shoved her key into the lock only to have the door stop after opening an inch. The chain was engaged. Awesome.

She slammed her body against the door to no avail. Utilizing the inch of open space she began ranting at him to come open the door. Just when she started in on how someone could come and murder her all because he wouldn't let her in, and it would be all his fault, and then how would he feel, she could finally hear him coming. Except she was wrong. It wasn't Tim's voice that told her to back up so they could open the chain.

She had met some of her brother's friends and most of his team, which overlapped to an almost sad amount, this person she wasn't familiar with. It wasn't Tony who she was quite fond of. The voice belonged to someone female. Unfortunately not Ziva, who was too interesting not to like. He didn't have girlfriend to her knowledge. Then the door swung open and Sarah was presented with the one member of Team Gibbs she hadn't ever properly met. This just kept getting better.

Sarah really hated the idea of Abby Sciuto. She had heard more about this woman than she had anyone in her brother's life for years, including most family members. She believed Abby was toying with him and she didn't take kindly to that. Nobody screwed with her brother. She wanted to hate her. She tried to, usually putting aside the fact that Abby had basically kept her out of prison. Despite that kind of major thing, Sarah still felt entitled, this woman had tied Tim up to the point he couldn't let himself be with anyone else. Sarah really was beginning to think that he was going to wait for her forever. She never got it.

It angered her, not that that was particularly hard to do. Tim had protected her enough times, somebody needed to do the same for him. If that meant telling Abby off, she would do it. She never minded those kinds of necessary tasks. Sarah was relatively sure Tim knew her opinion on the Abby subject. He didn't want her to be able to say exactly what he knew she wanted to say to Abby. She was also sure it was why she had never met her. Even when she had been at NCIS, they were never left in a room alone together. She had wanted to be introduced to her but Tim had prevented that plan from coming to fruition.

Back when she was under investigation, she had had no choice in the matter. She was sure the last thing her brother wanted was her being anywhere near Abby. He had gotten exactly what he wanted. Now, however, it was years later and more importantly, he wasn't there. It was Abby, not her brother, helping her drag her bags inside. As many things as she'd like to say to her, Sarah couldn't help but be interested too. Despite everything else, Tim was attached to her, probably in love with her, and Abby was so not the kind of person she ever would have seen him picking in a million years. You didn't get more straight laced than Tim. It was a paradox. Something that needed further study.

Sarah was quickly swept into the apartment and informed that the goth was taking advantage of 'visitation rights' with Tim's dog and that 'Timmy' should be home soon. The assumption she would stay was a nice touch, kept her from having to find an excuse to prolong the visit. Sarah did have some sense of social decorum, she could at least talk to her without letting her true thoughts reign, for awhile anyway. She tried to tune back into what Abby was saying. It was difficult keeping up with the rapid dialogue. Abby was zipping around the kitchen pulling things down without even taking a second to stop and think. Abby had been in the process of making some kind of recipe for him in exchange for asking him to do the impossible. Apparently, Tim had made it happen.

Trying to keep hating Abby was hard when she was in front of you. As she sat in Tim's kitchen, Sarah couldn't help but be drawn into the world of Abby. The scientist was going on about how she had wanted to meet Sarah for a very long time, every since she'd been brought to NCIS, and how happy she was that Sarah had been cleared, not just because of her innocence in the crime but because she didn't want Tim to have to go through sending his sister to jail. That lead to stories about Tony being framed. From the frame up, they morphed into other team narratives, the stories were enjoyable. These were the type of story Tim would have edited out of telling her.

Sarah went fishing for information to hold against him. It was what sisters did. Anything that could prove useful would be recorded in her memory for future use. It was a sibling's duty to keep such a cache for their own personal entertainment. Sadly, the ammunition granting stories were far between. Instead Abby was in full Tim the superhero mode. Sarah couldn't help but be dragged into sharing the amazement at some of the things Tim had pulled off, a good number of them for Abby. Learning about this other side of her brother was fun and intriguing. The story telling was a good experience, Abby was in awe of Tim as much as she was. Right as they had finished up a Christmas story involving a little boy and his deployed mom, they could hear the door being unlocked once again.

They could hear him as he walked in, "Abby, Chain goes on the door. Who are you talking to? You didn't invite Tony over again did you because last time…" He stopped abruptly when he saw the two of them. Together. With no chaperone. From the way he was looking between then, there was no doubt that Tim knew her opinion of Abby. Knowing that he knew made it all the more hilarious. His eyes flit between the two of them in something akin to panic. Obviously they had triggered a danger warning in his head. Proceed with caution. He appeared to be giving them both a once over, probably searching for hidden injuries from the cat fight that must have taken place. Seriously, he gave her like no credit. Sarah couldn't help but smirk.

She only saw a second of his expression before her vision of him was cut off by pigtails as he was tackled. He looped his arm around her waist to return the hug. She watched him kiss Abby's cheek and let her go before turning to his sister. "I thought I told you to wait until I got home." "Didn't want to." "Clearly." Abby broke into their stare off. "We've been having fun, Timmy!" The look he gave Abby revealed his blatant disbelief.

Sarah put on her best sweet smile before addressing him, "We've been having story hour. It's been very informative." That put the fear of god in him. Abby took pity on him, although it was awfully cute how vexed he got. "Relax Timmy, all good things. I didn't even tell her about your tattoo." Abby added the last bit as she winked at Sarah. She couldn't help herself. Sarah almost fell out of her chair. "You have a tattoo? Where? What is it? I want to see!" Tim blanched. "Not a chance. Not ever. Thank you, Abby." She smiled serenely at him. "I aim to please."

Once Tim had been coaxed down from the proverbial ceiling over the tattoo issue, which she would find out the details about one day, Abby had claimed it was time for her to go and let them get on with the familyness. Now that Sarah had learnt of the vast knowledge Abby held concerning her brother she wasn't as happy as she expected for her to leave. The evening had put a damper on her style. She did not hate Abby. She actually kind of liked her. Sarah didn't like it when she had to change her views on people. But this time she may have been a bit forward. In her professional opinion, Abby was as reciprocal as she could be.

She sat down on the sofa and watched Tim walk Abby out. Then she got it. It wasn't a one way street that Abby was dragging him down. Maybe Tim hadn't been hanging on for nothing, he obviously wasn't all that straight laced. Mistaken on two counts, it really was an off night. It was probably the only good thing about Tim not talking to their dad. Their father would most likely take one look at Abby with his son and have a coronary. That didn't matter. She had only seen them together for awhile but Sarah got it.

He came back and sank down next to her. She looked over at him sideways. "So, that's Abby." He nodded. "You know, you could just tell her you love her." "Didn't you threaten to kill the last person you said you loved?" "Totally different Tim." He was quiet for a few seconds. "She knows." "Well okay then." She watched him as they sat there for another minute before she reached for the television remote. Once she hit the power button a show on tattooing came to life. She had just turned back in time to see a new look of horror cross her brother's face. "So, what is it? Something from a video game? Lord of the Rings? You got it on your butt didn't you? Come on… you can tell me…"


End file.
